Typee

Based on Melville’s own desertion from a whaling ship, this vivid narrative follows a young sailor who jumps ship in the Marquesas Islands and lives among the Typee, a Polynesian people rumored to be cannibals, in a lush valley that is part paradise, part gilded cage. Blending adventure, romance, and sharp criticism of missionaries and colonialism, Melville’s first book was a sensation, offering readers an exotic glimpse of the South Seas. Sensuous and thought-provoking, Typee questions which society—the ‘savage’ or the ‘civilized’—is truly happier. A captivating blend of travel, ethnography, and escape fantasy, it launched the career of one of America’s greatest writers.